The COAI has says BSNL’s new service violates norms and could lead to major revenue losses for telcos in the future.
It seems state-owned telecom operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), has ruffled some feather with other telcos. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has approached the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) about the company’s new app-based calling services. BSNL’s new limited fixed mobile telephony service allows calling through an app, which makes a mobile phone essentially operate like a landline phone. The app allows smartphones to sync with landline telephones and receive calls or make them.
According to the COAI, the new limited fixed telephony service is a version of BSNL’s Fixed Telephony Service (FMT), which was announced and then withdrawn last year. However, BSNL is marketing the new service as a whole new concept altogether. COAI in this case represents all telcos, barring Reliance Jio, which the body says has different views.
The industry body further said that the service breaches license conditions and is a violation of numbering plan. The COAI has also alleged that BSNL is evading Interconnect Usage Charges. “We understand that the new service will use fixed line Caller Line Identification for making calls from mobiles and currently no termination charges are applicable for calls to and from fixed line in terms of TRAI’s prevailing IUC regulation,” says COAI’s letter to TRAI.
The body says that if allowed, then other telcos will also start using the same technology, thereby causing major revenue losses. The COAI has requested TRAI’s intervention for the same.
